The funeral service of Lizzie Wanyoike which took place in Gatanga, Murang'a County on Tuesday, featured moving tributes from family, close associates and politicians.
Stella Wanjiru Njoroge, daughter to the late Nairobi Institute of Business Studies (NIBS) founder, eulogised her mother as the embodiment of excellence whose influence shaped her into the person she is on top of impacting her life in a major way.
Speaking during the funeral service, Wanjiru remarked that most family friends who maintained contact with the Wanyoikes were taken aback by the news of Lizzie's passing. This was on account of her strong determination and the fact that she refrained from showing the community that she was weak despite being ill before her demise.
Wanjiru stated that her mother would attend meetings, events, shows and participate in other engagements and all this while, she cut the image of a strong personality.
"Mum visited many doctors during this time of illness and nothing was diagnosed. She spared no expenses and we travelled to different countries including India, and the USA, looking for different specialists and desperately trying to find out what was ailing her," Wanjiru explained.
"For her, not knowing was worse than knowing, but little did we know."
Wanjiru noted that Lizzie was surprised upon her cancer diagnosis and expressed frustration towards other specialists who had failed to identify such a serious illness.
"When it was finally established that she had cancer, her first reaction was that she was very angry because she had put all these efforts into trying to figure out what was wrong. We couldn't understand how the specialists could have missed a disease that is big, so devastating and so evil," she pointed out.
"She refused to back down and fought hard through the whole of the disease we truly believed that she would recover."
Lizzie's Impact
During her speech, Wanjiru recalled a letter she once wrote to her mother when she was studying in the US, noting how it brought back fond memories of their relationship at the time.
"The other day, I came across a letter I had written to my mum while at the university in the USA. It was a typical 'please send me money' letter. The letter made me laugh because I sounded so naive because the interesting part is we shared so many secrets," Wanjiru remarked.
She highlighted the pivotal role her mother played in her career, including influencing her decision to leave a high-paying job in the US to join the family business.
"Living apart for over 18 years, our relationship had diminished but when I moved back to Kenya, we were able to reconnect and this has been the last 12 years, more so the final two years when she was ailing," she added.
"She constantly talked to me about how she had picked up her life and established herself in her later years. In fact, she would say 40 is the new 20."
She also revealed three lessons learnt during the entire period; taking full control of one's health care, being bold in challenging the medical space and also placing trust in God, the ultimate healer.
